MOSCOW (Sputnik) — On Wednesday, the European Parliament suspended its work on granting Turkish citizens visa-free travel to the European bloc, citing Ankara's lack of progress in meeting all the criteria required for such a step.
The five important criteria in question include a revision of Turkey’s national anti-terrorism laws, under which the notion of terrorism includes non-violent political activities — a pretext the authorities can exploit to arrest dissident journalists and academics.
"Our assessment is that Turkey has done its best and fulfilled enough requirements. It is not a mathematical problem, but a political one," Bozkir was quoted as saying by the Daily Sabah newspaper.
Turkey was officially recognized as a candidate for full EU membership in December 1999. Talks on the issue started in 2005, but remain virtually deadlocked, as the sides failed to agree on the implementation of technical points that Ankara must fulfill to meet the standards required for EU membership.
Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke out against the EU demands for the country to change its anti-terrorism legislation.
